It’s a lot more action on Capital Hill than on Wall Street friday. The stock market slides in to a weak ending with a light headwind from the dollar, as the investors park their portfolios in safe havens. But in Washington it’s full storm around treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and his FED-friends, while senator Ted Kaufman [...]

U.S. stocks rose Friday, for their second consecutive weekly advance, as upbeat earnings reports from a number of companies, including Walt Disney and JC Penny, spurred optimism that the economic recovery is gaining momentum.  A dip in the value of dollar, on concerns consumer spending is likely to remain bleak, sent shares of commodity-related companies up. 

On Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average rose 73 points, or 0.72%, to 10,270.47. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 6.24 points, or 0.57%, at 1,093.48. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index advanced 18.86 points, or 0.88%, to 2,167.88.  For the week the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 2.3% to 1,093.48.  The Dow average rose 247.05 points, or 2.5%, to 10,270.47, following its 3.2% advance the prior week.

The spike in commodities came after the greenback fell Friday on news that the trade deficit widened more than expected in

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A day after the triple-digit rally, Wall Street paused for a breather as investors decided to book profits on a light trading day.  The markets opened lower and then swung between gains and losses amid prevailing caution after a series of disappointing results.  The Dow, nevertheless, managed to tack on 20 points for its fifth straight session gain.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 0.01%, to 1,093.01 and the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 2.98 points, or 0.14%, to close at 2,151.08.  On the New York Stock Exchange, three stocks declined in price for every two that rose.  Volume was light as only 990 million shares exchanged hands.

Record low interest rates and a sliding dollar have helped stocks in recent months as investors have taken their focus away from some of the persistent worries of the economy.  Also, with the Federal Reserve continuing its highly accommodative monetary

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(AP:WASHINGTON) Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the economic recovery “could be a little choppy” and it’s going to take a while. Geithner told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that bringing back jobs and the confidence of investors will be the real test of recovery. He declined to say whether the recession is over, saying economists will figure that out years from now.

Recent encouraging news in the economy “shows that _ when you act with force _ you can stabilize a crisis like this,” he said in the interview that will air Sunday.

“But this is going to be a different recovery than in the past because Americans are going to have to save more. A lot of damage was caused by this crisis. It’s going to take some time for us to grow out of this. “It could be a little choppy. It could be uneven. And it’s going to take

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In the midst of the 1990s bull market, one lone regulator warned about derivatives’ dangers - and overnight became the enemy of some of the most powerful people in Washington …

In The Warning, veteran Frontline producer Michael Kirk unearths the hidden history of the nation’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. At the center of it all he finds Brooksley Born, who speaks for the first time on television about her failed campaign to regulate the secretive, multitrillion-dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008.

“I didn’t know Brooksley Born,” says former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, a member of President Clinton’s powerful Working Group on Financial Markets. “I was told that she was irascible, difficult, stubborn, unreasonable.” Levitt explains how the other principals of the Working Group - former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin -

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This post provides links to a number of thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find of interest.

• Mike Shedlock (Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis): Is the stock market a leading indicator?, October 12, 2009. The stock market is at best a coincident indicator, known only well after the fact. Furthermore, even as a coincident indicator, the stock market gives many false signals, making it totally useless for all practical purposes. The theory that the stock market is a reliable leading indicator is a myth easily shattered by simple observation of the facts.

• Caroline Baum (Bloomberg): Treasury bond rally fails asset-bubble test, October 13, 2009. Bubble sightings are proliferating by the day, and with interest rates near zero, it’s not hard to understand why. Easy money leads to excess credit creation, which eventually produces

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The longer the rally persists, the more dangerous it becomes.

The S&P 500 is up almost 60% since March. The Dow just had its best quarter since ’98.

Yesterday, the Dow slipped 29 points. Is the rally finally rolling over? Or is this a genuine bull market, just taking a pause?

If it is a real bull market it’s a funny-looking bull – one that is missing parts!

For example, corporate earnings are missing. P/E ratios are rising far above the corporate earnings that support them. This puts the market 35% overvalued on a cyclically-adjusted P/E basis, says Smithers & Co.

And if you look at it in terms of its “q” ratio – a comparison of capitalisation and replacement costs – the S&P is even more overvalued. As for emerging markets, “they’re off the charts,” says the Financial Times.

Another missing part is the consumer. This from David Rosenberg:

“ Consumer confidence not only

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• David Rosenberg (Financial Times): Equities carry too much risk, September 23, 2009. The banker J.P. Morgan was fond of saying: “I never buy at lows, I never sell at the highs, I play the middle 60 per cent.” Well, from our lens, we are well past that middle 60 per cent point of this bear market rally.

• Roman Frydman and Michael Goldberg (Financial Times): An economics of magical thinking, September 23, 2009. Confidence seems to be returning to markets almost everywhere, but the debates about what caused the worst crisis since the Great Depression show no sign of letting up. Instead, the spotlight has shifted from bankers, financial engineers and regulators to economists and their theories. This is not a

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WASHINGTON - September 23, 2009 - This morning, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu hosted a group of clean energy developers and manufacturers at the White House to discuss how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) is creating jobs and helping expand the development of clean, renewable domestic energy.

U.S. stocks rose for a fifth day on Thursday as a larger than expected drop in U.S. jobless claims and an upbeat forecast from consumer goods maker Procter & Gamble added to enthusiasm that the economy is on track for a rebound.  Energy shares advanced, helped by rising forecasts for oil demand.  Nevertheless, given September’s weak track record, market participants have been bracing for a pullback.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 80.26 points, or 0.8%, to 9,627.48, its highest close since October 6.  The broader S&P 500 index advanced 10.77 points, or 1%, to 1,044.14, its first five-day climb since November.  The Nasdaq composite index rose 23.63 points, or 1.2%, to 2,084.02.  With traders eschewing safe havens, yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.35%. The yield on the 30-year notes declined to 4.20%.

As the holiday-shortened week comes to an end today, investors

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